Patronage of the Queen is 'gold standard' of charitable patronage, report says

A report from the Centre for Charity Effectiveness, based on responses from charities that took part in the Patron's Lunch last year, says charities that share her patronage should collaborate more

Detail from the report cover

Having the Queen as patron is the "gold standard" for charitable patronage, but charities that share the accolade should collaborate more, according to a new report.

The report, written by Paul Palmer, director of the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Cass Business School, and Jim Clifford and Fiona Sheil of the law firm Bates Wells Braithwaite, is based on survey responses and interviews carried out with charities that took part in the Patron’s Lunch last year.

The event, held on The Mall in June, was designed to celebrate the Queen’s patronage of more than 600 charities as part of her 90th birthday celebrations.

The report assesses the effectiveness of the event and evaluate the benefits of having the Queen as patron.

It says charities that make use of this patronage consider it a "gold standard of trust, inspiration and recognition".

It says: "This stretches not just globally and towards donors and sponsors, but throughout the organisations themselves, providing a shared identity and values across volunteers, members and staff.

"From the Queen’s patronage flow many benefits in the way in which the charities perceive themselves, and the way in which others perceive them.

"The Queen’s patronage confers ‘credibility’, creates ‘status’ and enables ‘recognition’. Most strongly felt and evidenced is the ‘pride’ endowed by the patronage, and the excitement, satisfaction and message of importance this passes across charities’ staff, volunteers and beneficiaries."

Sir Stuart Etherington, chair of the Patron’s Fund, which supports charities that have the Queen as patron, writes in his foreword to the report: "It is clear that, for many organisations, the Queen’s patronage is both immensely valuable and also inspirational in pushing them to aim for the highest standards in their work."

But he notes the recommendation in the report highlighting the scope for greater partnership between organisations that have the Queen as patron and says he hopes such organisations can find ways to collaborate more.

The report notes that there is likely to have been positive bias within the sample of charities that responded, given that they were self-selected and mostly positive about their patronage and the Patron’s Lunch event.

"We therefore view our findings as representative of best practice use of the Queen’s patronage, and not representative of all practice," it says.

Expert Hub

When a property is being constructed, VAT is charged at the standard rate. But if you're a charity, health body, educational institution, housing association or finance house, the work may well fall into a category that justifies zero-rating - and you could make a massive saving